Welcome to the medicine way. Even if you are not interested in feathers, rattles or drums do not think that the skills of the shaman would be of no use to you.
On the contrary I truly would not be without the knowledge shared by these teachings. They are not new or different but have been around for centuries in many different forms. Preserved by a small group of people determined to ensure that the wisdom is passed on from one generation to another. What changes is the language and how it is communicated.
These teachings are like having a really comfortable pair of shoes that you know never let you down. Those shoes that even when the going gets tough and the terrain is uncertain they carry you through. This is the most important message I have, that the skill and knowledge of the ancient traditions are from my experience the most profound life skills I have ever come across.
As we journey together around the medicine wheel you may recognize aspects and methods from other traditions and modern practices, all which have evolved from simple teachings reaching far back into humankind’s history. So although nothing I share with you is new, the understanding and availability of these teachings is evolving and reaching those of us who perhaps would not completely recognize the language of our ancestors. The tools shared will give you the opportunity to have an experience for yourself and in this experience you can begin to create a relationship with the teachings that is yours, not mine, or that of anyone else. It is in your personal experience and through your personal inner journey that you gain knowledge and wisdom.
We learn that the best service any of us can be is to be able to know ourselves without any self deception and to recognize ourselves in others, even if we don’t like them very much or we consider them to be better or more powerful than us.
That being a shaman is not about how many exams you have, degrees or how much information you know. It is about experiential knowledge, a knowing and a realization that energy is benign and simply responds to our requests. So if we do not like what we are creating, we have the power to create something else.
A shaman is a mapmaker and this is each and every one of us. Why?
Because we all create a map of our reality, we all have coordinates that help us make sense of the world or survive the world we find ourselves living in. We all have our own view of reality and as we journey through life the coordinates that we put in place shift and change, more often than not unconsciously.
As a shaman we consciously create new maps and new ways of seeing our reality. We recognize more quickly coordinates that come from the past and rather than keep living into them, especially if they are not working particularly well, we learn to shift them. To live in to a life that is truly ours, where we can meet ourselves in full passion and with full zest for life whatever our life journey is.
So if you are a child (old enough to read this) a teenager, a Mum, a Dad, out of work, a construction worker, a business woman, businessman, a plumber, a Nurse, a Doctor, a Scientist to name but a few now it is about bringing these skills to our families, our work place, our clients and our lives. It is for us to create relationships that are truly in balance, and a world we want our children to be born into.
Journey well – Nicky Mott